There are about 5,000 people employed by Boeing in Long Beach who build the large four engine C-17 cargo planes. But, the U.S. Air Force doesn’t want any more of the advanced transports, so unless Boeing can line up more than expected sales to international customers, that work will come to an end in the next year or so. Yesterday, the Air Force announced that Boeing won the two way competition for the next major airplane building contract – the new aerial refueling tanker. Does this mean Boeing’s people in Long Beach can stop building C-17’s and start building the tankers? Probably not.
For one thing, the new tankers will be based on Boeing’s 767 airplane, which is not built in Southern California. Of course, like Boeing has done with the C-17 and other large programs, the tanker work will be spread around to as many congressional districts as possible. Thus, there will probably be a significant amount of tanker work headed for So Cal.
“California will benefit from approximately 4,500 jobs with nearly 100 companies and an estimated $233 million in annual economic impact if the Boeing NewGen Tanker is selected as the U.S. Air Force’s next aerial refueling aircraft,” Boeing wrote in a statement before the contract award was announced.
Boeing indicated the California work could include these firms:
- Alarin Aircraft Hinge Inc., Commerce — aircraft hinges
- ITT Industries, Valencia — adapter shaft assemblies, actuators and valves
- Lamsco West Inc., Santa Clarita — engineered details, standards and laminated sheet
- Raytheon, El Segundo — military GPS, Radar Warning Receivers
- Sonic Industries, Torrance — specialty high-strength fasteners
- Tuffer Manufacturing, Anaheim — machined parts.
But, this doesn’t say much about Boeing’s airplane builders in Long Beach.
“It’s too early to tell what tanker work, if any, will be done in Long Beach. The priority with our highly-skilled aircraft workforce there right now is delivering C-17s for our U.S. Air Force and international customers,” Boeing Spokesman Jerry Drelling told OC180NEWS. “This is a great win for the Boeing Military Aircraft business and all of Boeing benefits from this important contract.”
And important it certainly is – one of the largest new procurement in years. Even though the initial contract is only for a few billions to build 18 planes for combat ready delivery in 2017, many more are expected to be ordered.
“The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has received a contract from the U.S. Air Force to build the next-generation aerial refueling tanker aircraft that will replace 179 of the service’s 400 KC-135 tankers,” Boeing wrote in a statement.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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